When it counts

Tonight, we saw a beautiful game. Dallas vs Denver. Tony Romo vs Peyton Manning. A defensive coordinator's nightmare even before the game started.

And when Denver won 51-48, the game lived up to the hype.

But the story(well at least MY story) was the Tony Romo interception in the last two minutes, in a pressure situation, again.

And again, and again.

AND AGAIN!

But this story isn't all about Tony Romo, although it could be. This has to do with the stuff between
your ears when pressure starts raining down on you.

I always have that question. What makes certain athletes choke in the biggest situations, and what makes some thrive?

Why does a Tony Romo, a guy with a million dollar arm, million dollar looks, and everything going for him...A guy who is as accurate as it comes, and is as good of an athlete as you get in that position...completely choke just about every pressure situation you could put in front of him? Give him a lead and he keeps it, put him ten points behind and he gets a TD, but a TD or FG behind with the game on the line and he gets nervous, antsy, and forces balls into bad places...most often getting picked off.

On the other hand, let's talk Tim Tebow for a second. A guy who really can't throw, who really doesn't grasp the position, and is basically playing pee wee football with all the running around, yet when the fourth quarter comes, and it's the last couple of minutes, he does not panic, he does not even sweat. He is famous for losing one game in college, apologizing to the fans for that, then telling them he will work harder than anyone you will ever see...and then goes out to run the table.

If we really want to use a sport as an example of the mental game, and the difference between the very best, and the minor leagues, it's tennis. The distance, talent-wise, between the top 10 and top 150 is really remote compared to other sports. But the mentality is like night and day, and consistency and momentum is the hardest to keep over a real long season. Think about this for a second. You have exactly a split second, if not less, to think about your next shot, and where you are going to place it, while also having to strategize your next four shots, and hoping your opponent hasn't read your moves. That's what the very best do.

Now imagine big ball basher guy. He has huge arms and four percent body fat. He can hit a beautiful ball, and impress the fans with his gorgeous shots. He is also 150 in the world and struggling to exist on the tour because the expenses can kill you if you aren't at the top. He goes to a grand slam qualifier hoping to qualify because a first round paycheck is about $30,000, and it gives him some leeway for a few months. Now imagine losing the first round of the qualifier? That's about 2-3 grand and you are back to square one.

How about two opponents who are in the final round of qualifiers, and they are in the final set, and it's a tiebreak? Just imagine the pressure to make a grand slam draw, and enough money to live? A lot blow it time and time again.

What can cure that? What can help? It's a hard answer, but maybe repetition will help. Or remembering what's truly important would help. Lee Trevino, the legendary golfer, once said that he hit every big putt in every big tournament because he remembered when an 18th hole putt meant the difference between his wife and child going hungry, and them having food for a week.

That being said, it's very easy to say money has taken the urgency out of the modern day athlete. True, it is easy to remember Larry Bird seemingly hitting every big shot with the game on the line, with rarely a miss...or Michael Jordan stepping on the throats of his opponents because he hated to lose. But we really can't say that because Kobe Bryant makes $30 million a year, with $60 million in endorsements, and he is a killer with the game on the line.

So if it's not money, what is it?

It's a subject I'm going to continue to investigate. All I know is that the good thing about being 35 is that I understand how much more important the mental side of life is than the physical. The physical is important, but the physical only gets you so far. Remember that only a third of Shaquille O'Neal's salary ever came from sports. The rest came from his charm, his charisma, and his mind. It's no different on the A-Team. B.A. Baracus might be cool and break some heads, but he's not planning out the missions, and that's what's important in the end.

Don't climb the ladder...BE the ladder